POKEMONth Post: Starting Out With Special Partners

As part of my POKEMONth event, I want to talk about a different facet of the world of Pokemon as often as I can throughout my whole . I may be able to make it once a day, but if not, suffice to say, it's going to be a fun ride.

Today, I'm going to talk about the quintessential part of EVERY Pokemon game-your Starter Pokemon! While these little scamps are usually ridiculously cute and your rival invariably chooses the one that you're weakest against, they're still one of the most memorable and special parts of the Pokemon experience!

But first, some house-keeping!

So far my POKEMONth compatriots are as follows:

Oni no Tenshi (moi, of course).

Oni's Husband (who will, for all intents and purposes, be known as "Oni's Husband" unless he decides to join GIO).

And if there are any other people who I've missed, let me know in the comments! :D

So to start things off, there's the basics. Your three "starter" Pokemon are basically one of three types.

Although, come on, how is water weak against grass?! You can drown grass too!

In my opinion, the first generation of starter Pokemon were the cutest. While there are obviously other cute starter Pokemon, all THREE of the starter Pokemon from Red/Blue were adorable (and they only made Pokemon Yellow because of the show so I don't really count Pikachu). Just look at those big eyes, those super huge foreheads, and the rounded features! D'AWWWWWWW! It also helps that all of them have a color palette that directly references what type they are. Some of the later starter Pokemon are kind of confusing when it comes to their type (like seriously, how is a lizard a "grass" Pokemon? How is a pig a fire Pokemon?), and generally, I feel like they make the best cute pokemon outside of the main starters.

If Charmander chooses Charmander in Pokemon Red, does the universe explode from the paradox?

Now obviously if you look at Pokemon Red and Blue, you will see the
final evolutions of Charmander and Squirtle respectively. There's an
expectation that you will bond with your first Pokemon so much that you
will never have a party without it. Even your rival will have the
opposite starter Pokemon for the entirety of the game. There is a
feeling that, beyond the other 150 original Pokemon, your starter
Pokemon has a special bond with you, the trainer, one that doesn't go
away just because you caught some higher level monsters.

This doesn't really feel so mandatory in the subsequent games. There are tons of cute Pokemon and tons of more powerful ones. Since you really only get 6 Pokemon in your party at a time, it makes sense that if your starter Pokemon doesn't really matter to you, you'll just hang onto it until you can stash it in your PC for the duration of the game.

Who were you guys again? I don't really know. Oh well, *deposits in PC*

The one thing that is interesting to me, though, is that apparently in each game, these Pokemon are so very common that EVERY kid who starts out on a journey gets a choice of one of these three Pokemon. Yet you can't seem to find the other two ANYWHERE YOU GO in the world where wild Pokemon are available. Of course, there's one place in the original Pokemon Red/Blue where you can find Squirtle if you surf over by Cinnibar Island, but it's always insanely high level and it tries to run away unless you can trap it in the fight.

Which makes me wonder, are the starter Pokemon selectively bred so that ONLY trainers who start out from specifically sanctioned Labs can actually play? Or are the starter Pokemon actually "rare" but are given to the rich trainers who can afford to start out a journey with the blessing of the scientific community?

5 Generations of cute! :D

In conclusion, I would have to say that the starter Pokemon is a tradition that I don't see going away anytime soon. However, I do think that it would be nice if they could make their choices a little more fitting to the spirit of the fire/grass/water tradition. While the first three generations of water starters were totally fitting, the fourth and fifth generations made me go "WTF Pokemon world?" The same thing goes for most of the other fire and leaf pokemon starter characters from 3rd generation onwards!

So yeah, I understand, it's hard to create a ton of new Pokemon, but it would be amazing to be able to choose from all the past starter Pokemon as well. Because as for me, I'm sticking with my Charmander, because Charmander ROCKS. :D

I just have to make sure to get enough badges so that my Charizard won't do THIS.

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So anyway, who is YOUR favorite "starter" Pokemon (I know I gave you the choice of ANY Pokemon yesterday, but this is specific).

Which "starter" Pokemon is the most ridiculous/nonsensical considering its "type"?